The present invention relates to members used in construction, especially in applications where the importance of sound attenuation and isolation is significant. In particular, the present invention relates to construction members used to construct building structures in which sound transmission from one room to another is to be prevented or reduced.
In general, it is conventionally known to resiliently mount a wall or ceiling in order to isolate sound or attenuate transmission therethrough.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,445,975 to Nelsson discloses a partition in which first and second lath panels are held against a metallic stud, channel, or furring member by a clip fastener. One portion of the stud, channel, or furring member is cantilevered away from the portion at which the lath panels are clipped thereto. According to Nelsson, this permits the free portion of the stud, channel, or furring member to flex as the lath panels mechanically respond to sound waves incident thereon. The remainder of the structure dampens this surface movement, reducing sound transmission to the opposite surface of the partition.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,324,615 to Zinn discloses a construction member having a plurality of laterally extending supporting tabs by which wallboard segments are resiliently mounted.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,046,620 to Tvorik et al. discloses a ceiling hanger member whereby a furring strip (to which a ceiling member is attached) is resiliently attached to a joist, such that the weight of the furring strip and ceiling member resiliently separates the furring strip from the joist.
Another known method of sound attenuation is to build a wall frame in which studs are laterally staggered relative to a toe plate and head plate. Therefore, alternate studs are used to mount wall board on respective sides of the frame so that a given stud is spaced away from one of wall boards.
Unfortunately, the foregoing conventional methods of noise attenuation are problematic in that they generally move away from basic construction methods and thereby increase complexity and cost. For example, they require additional parts (such as Tvorik et al. and Nelsson) or specially made parts (such as the channel member with specially formed support tabs, as in Zinn). The staggered stud arrangement necessarily results in a thicker wall partition which reduces the area of the room whose walls are framed in this manner, and increases the cost of the toe and head plates.
In addition, nail fasteners generally cannot be used with metal members, thereby undesirably restricting available construction methods.
In addition to the devices for sound attenuation described hereinabove, a wood I-beam is commercially available (e.g., under the brand name xe2x80x9cBCI Advantagexe2x80x9d from Boise Cascade Corporation) that comprises a pair of wood members with a rigid wooden panel extending therebetween. However, because the wooden panel is essentially non-resilient, this I-beam offers little or no sound attenuation benefit.
The present invention is therefore directed to a construction member that relies on resilient flexibility in order to attenuate sound transmission therethrough, but also more closely conforms to conventional building members in order to minimize or eliminate the need for any special handling or the like in use.
In particular, the present invention is directed to a construction beam member sized comparably to conventional wood beams (for example, 2xe2x80x3xc3x974xe2x80x3 or 2xe2x80x3xc3x976xe2x80x3). The beam comprises a pair of spaced of lateral members having a resilient web extending therebetween. Ends of the resilient web are fixed to respective ones of the lateral members on opposite sides of an imaginary reference plane passing orthogonally through both of the lateral members. The web is preferably relatively stiff, but permits a slight flexure between the lateral members. The lateral members are preferably made from an easily workable material such as wood.